Think about the last time you watched a marketing video. What impressed you the most? What made you connect with the video? If you are like most people, it will have something to do with the voice that is used. A person's voice has the power to make you pay attention to the content or push you away.
The words or script used are secondary. That does not mean they are unimportant. It just means they do not have the same impact as the voice. The human voice can do things that words cannot.
Right now, you are reading this post in your own voice. Your voice is helping you connect with those words. The same is true for videos. Voice helps a video connect better with its audience. A voice-over gives your videos the emotional impact they need to come through.
A large number of businesses these days create videos to market their products and services. This can be great content, but it can also be mediocre. You have probably noticed that with the right voiceover, you can turn mediocre content into great content - and vice versa. Voice gives your videos the intimacy they need to be recognized and taken seriously. With thousands of videos created every day, you need something that will set you apart from the crowd and help you reach new heights. Ask any marketer. They'll tell you that the soundtrack is just as important, if not more important, than the visual components of your video. This should not come as a surprise to you. You only have to watch a documentary with the voice of Morgan Freeman or Keanu Reeves to know it's true. Or Pablo Francisco.
Below, we'll discuss the importance of using voice-over for your video content.
A voice-over (VO) is the voice that speaks a video, documentary, trailer, or anything else. The concept is easy to understand. We have all been hearing voice-overs for a long time. Companies use a specific voice to speak in all of their videos. Some companies use a variety of voices, depending on the content. Voice-overs are an effective way to connect with your audience and ensure they understand your message. Depending on the content, you can choose the type of voiceover you want.
This could be:
This is the kind of voice you want if you are going for power and charisma. Think of Morgan Freeman and the many movies and documentaries he has voiced. With a voice like this, you can be sure that viewers will watch the video repeatedly. A voice like this demands to be listened to multiple times. It conveys a sense of confidence and authority. It gives your videos the respect they deserve. Also, you will not find many videos with an authoritative voice that are generic. Videos with this kind of voice-over usually go viral, and the message spreads like wildfire.
If you have a brand or product that is fun, you can not use an authoritative voice. Your voice has to match your content or it's over for you. You can not make a video for a teen clothing brand and voice it in a deep and somber voice. That would give you the wrong attention. You need to use a voice that is not too serious. A voice that is full of excitement and energy. A voice that makes you click on the call to action.
Similarly, you need to use a fun voice if you are in a toy store. You can also use a childlike voice if you want to increase attention or sympathy. Just make sure that it is not funny. Again, it all depends on your content.
Think of famous voices. What comes to mind? Think of the genie from Aladdin. He is one of the most memorable voices for children. Robin Williams has given this role an infectious energy that even adults can not escape. The voice is racy, energetic, and excited.
The voice is usually somber and in a single tone when you watch videos. Depending on the content, you can change all that. You can breathe life into your videos and make them stand out from the crowd. If someone plays your video and hears an energetic voice, they will be captivated by it and watch the whole video. They may even watch it multiple times.
Your video can easily become the next viral thing in the industry. But for that, you will have to experiment with multiple voices until you find the right one.
Related content: 3 Things to Expect From Voice Over Companies for the Best Outcome
Voice overs have been with us for a long time. We hear them on the radio, in commercials, sports, documentaries, movie and book trailers, and more. The advantage of this listening is that we have built trust in what we hear. We anticipate what we will hear and what will come. This adds to the authority of your content. It increases your customers' trust in your content and, in turn, in your brand, products, and services.
By setting it to music, you can ensure that the right content is being delivered to customers. Whatever is missing on the visual side, you can fill in with voice. It also allows you to fill in the gaps in the video and keep your customers engaged. You can explain your concept in detail without taking up too much of the viewer's time. With voice, you can reinforce the message you want to convey and give it more power.
There are several factors that come together to give your brand the image it deserves. These include voice, cadence, and the timing of it all. With a voice, you can give your brand the personality you want. You can make it funny, you can make it serious, you can make it reliable and trustworthy. It all depends on the voice.
The right voice can really hammer home the message, while a video may not be able to. Instead of speaking to your customers, you can use a voice-over to speak to your customers and make them feel like they are involved.
There's nothing more persuasive than a voice to get your customers to take the next step. A voice gives your videos the credibility that customers want. Only when they trust you will they trust you with their business, and nothing demonstrates trust more than a voice.
You can show your call to action all you want, but if you say it out loud, it has an even stronger impact, and your potential customers are more likely to follow it. You can also guide your prospects by asking them to sign up for a newsletter, provide their email address for future promotions, or actually buy your product or service.
A video can only offer so much. If you want a wide range and versatility, you should opt for a spokesperson. With a professional voice actor, you can ensure that the voice matches the tone of the video and gets the message across as intended. A good voice actor can listen to instructions and suggestions and follow directions to create a video that is fully aligned with the goal of the video.
Many videos are subtitled, and they work. But you need to know that when you rely on a subtitle, your viewers need to focus on two things at once. They need to pay attention to what's happening on the screen, and they need to follow the subtitles at the bottom at the same time. This means they can only give half their attention to the message being delivered. As they focus on the subtitles, they can lose track of the video and completely miss some things like background details, body language, and other important information.
Whether you are explaining a new product or promoting an existing one, it can be challenging to get the information across without visual cues. And the visual clues can only be seen when customers are focused only on the video. When you use voice-over, make sure viewers have a seamless experience and get the full message without interruptions, distractions, or the like.
Another reason voice-over is better than subtitles is that when translating from one language to another, there can be expansion and contraction of the text. Depending on the content of the video, the text can either fill the screen or create gaps. This means that viewers do not pay attention to the video for a short period of time. This affects the quality of the video and the message conveyed and impacts the tone and mood.
One of the most important elements in marketing is emotion. Let us say you fail to evoke an emotion in your audience. In this case, your message might get lost in the thousands of other marketing messages that customers see every day. You need to make sure that your customers feel a wave of emotions when they watch your video, be it joy, sadness, happiness, excitement, or something else. This is the only way you can connect with them and draw them closer to you.
If you have an experienced voice actor by your side, you can add the right kind of emotion to your content. You can make someone feel concerned, compassionate, happy, or any other emotion you want. Many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other organizations use voice over to evoke sympathy for their cause and get you to donate or volunteer. It adds the final human touch to the story you tell. People are drawn to other people rather than products or organizations.
The right voice can give your video the human factor that allows your customers to empathize and connect with you.
Related content: Video Translation Errors: from Subtitling to Voiceover
That's the question you need to ask yourself before you decide to dub. You need to know what kind of voice you need to make your message more impactful. This depends on the content of the video as well as the brand, product, or service you are promoting.
If you are shooting a video about your nightclub, then you need a happy and upbeat voice. A voice that explains to your audience how fun and exciting your nightclub is. The same goes for financial services. You need someone who can talk about your services without making it seem like child's play. To that end, you need a voice that is somber and serious.
A voice that can illustrate the seriousness of the situation and inspire confidence in customers.
It all depends on your budget and the type of services you want. You can also do it yourself. Sometimes all you need is a smartphone or another mobile device with a good-quality built-in microphone. But if you really want it to work and for the audience to understand the message, you need professionals who know what they are doing. Going pro is always a good idea.
Voice-over artists are highly skilled professionals who know what volume to achieve and how to find the right tone for the video. When you contact a voice-over company, be sure to listen to their audio files first so you know what you are getting. You can either provide them with a script, or they can create one and you can approve it.
Before that final voiceover audio file ends up on your computer, the whole process needs to take place. There are two workflows you can choose from, each with its own pros and cons:
A professional language service provider company should be able to offer you both options so that you can make an informed decision on which way to go.
That's the one that has been around for years. In this scenario, you'll need a recording studio with an audio interface, a pro mic with a pop filter, top headphones, audio recording software (DAW, Digital Audio Workstation) like Pro Tools, Audacity, Adobe Audition, Logic Pro (if you love Mac as this one is not available on PC but it's absolutely amazing), Cubase, Reaper (these apps also act as audio editing software), an audio editor, and many other elements to start recording and get a high-quality result. No background noises, distortions, wrong input levels (yes, that's that red area), non-standard sample rates, or other unprofessional surprises.
Of course, more and more often solo voice talents offer really great results from their home studio productions. Still, with projects that involve many languages and voices, you need to coordinate everything somehow. In professional agencies, this work is done by a project manager.
Plus, you may also need video editing software where your video editor "glues" your audio and video in sync and puts it together to work as intended. Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro are the most popular choices for you.
This traditional workflow lets you achieve great things but has one flaw: it's expensive.
The new era of voiceover is here already, though. Text-to-speech algorithms have become so sophisticated and accurate that together with Artificial Intelligence capabilities a host of new VO tools has emerged.
This technology makes professional voiceover available to anyone at a fraction of the cost. You don't need a studio, expensive gear, and countless people to get the job done. Apps like Speechelo, Wellsaid, or Lovo are taking the market by storm, and for a reason. Apart from available voices for virtually any type of application, they also have apps for editing and tweaking any imaginable aspect of voiceover to make it natural, no matter what you're after: narration, blog, social media, various business cases, including e-learning (that's a different story, though, with a whole new world of options offered by specialized tools like Articulate Storyline), or any other voice project you need (podcasts may be a challenge, but with the pace this niche grows, it may be no longer the case soon).
You don't need recording software, audio editing skills, video editing knowledge, and all that expensive stuff. You just need to select the best voice (not even a real voiceover artist), background music (if you need it), connect to the internet and you can start your voiceover work. Fast, easy, and affordable.
One of the reasons why many brands cannot get their message across is a poor choice of voice or no voice at all. This turns off the interest that the viewers have in your videos. That just makes your videos one more in the sea of videos that exist. Make sure that the voice is appropriate, trustworthy, and native. That will not only add to the value of your video, but it will also help your brand.
So, push that record button and take your multilingual market communication to the next level. Go and grow!
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